News
A Feast of Polish music in Krakow
2009-11-09
Today the 5th Festival of Polish Music begins. It will run until 15th November.Over the next few days world-class performers under the baton of the best conductors will perform pieces by over twenty Polish composers. The fifth edition of the festival will be inaugurated with Karol Szymanowski’s opera, King Roger performed by the soloists, orchestra and choir of the Wrocław Opera, directed by Mariusz Treliński. On November 11th during the concert to celebrate Independence Day in the Julius Słowacki Theatre artists including Urska Arlic Gololicic - winner of this year's Ada Sari singing contest in Nowy Sacz will perform. On 13th November in the Krakow Philharmonic it will be possible to hear Ivo Pogorelich play - one of the most unpredictable pianists in the world, and the on the last day of the Festival will be Bogusław Schaeffer’s Electronic Mass and the Seven Gates of Jerusalem by Krzysztof Penderecki – a piece composed at the request of Jerusalem on the occasion of the jubilee of three millennia of the city.
These are just a few of the musical events that are planned for this year's Festival of Polish Music. Apart from the concerts, there will also be meetings with creators, artists and musicologists. A detailed program of the festival is available on the website: www.fmp.org.pl.
The organizers of the Festival of Polish Music are the city of Krakow, the Polish Music Association and the Polish Radio.
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Iconic songs by Zygmunt Konieczny that audiences of Ewa Demarczyk loved decades ago in a new arrangement by Cezary Duchnowski. The latest ANAKLASIS album with Agata Zubel, Andrzej Bauer, Bartek Wąsik and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Humala is now available for purchase.
The theme of the 37th Krakow International Festival of Composers is music in music. Already in the 1970s, this issue was studied by the outstanding founder of the Krakow Theoretical School, Professor Mieczysław Tomaszewski. He reflected on the subject in an article entitled “At the Opening: why ‘music in music’”, which was published before one of the famous Music Meetings in Baranów.
The theme of Krzysztof Knittel’s work is refuge and the uncertainty and anxiety about the unknown associated with it, as well as the other side of this topic, i.e. the need to provide help and shelter. The text of the oratorio is based on a poem by Tadeusz Sławek. The piece features singing, recitations, choral parts and improvisations based on the traditions of the Middle East. The album was premiered on 15 March during the 11th Festival of Premieres in Katowice.
Musicologists commonly call it “Kras 52” – after the former reference number it was given in the Krasiński Library. It is the most valuable Polish source of medieval polyphonic music, which shaped the soundscape of the court of the first Jagiellons and Kraków at that time. The manuscript is gaining new life now, thanks to a performance edition by Agnieszka Budzińska-Bennett and Marc Lewon. “Krasiński Codex” has just been published by PWM Edition with the support of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
Frequent guest of the world’s most famous music venues (New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall and BBC Proms, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus), in February 2021 Bomsori signed an exclusive contract with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. As of this year, she also bears the honourable title of ambassador of Grażyna Bacewicz’s music, which she performs worldwide, promoting the legacy of Poland’s most important woman composer.
The 4CD album featuring songs and instrumental works by the Silesian master goes on sale as of 8 November. Released by the ANAKLASIS music label, it will be premiered on 3 December during a special PWM Edition concert held as part of the 12th International Days of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki at the Silesian Philharmonic in Katowice.
The esteemed American-Canadian jazz musician Michael Bates, his Acrobat Ensemble and the Lutosławski Quartet will perform three concerts in Poland in November. The repertoire will include material recorded by the musicians on the album METAMORPHOSES: VARIATIONS ON LUTOSŁAWSKI, released by ANAKLASIS in the REVISIONS series.
The artists have already successfully presented it at Lincoln Center and Barbès Jazz Club in New York. In autumn 2024 we will have the opportunity to hear them live for the first time in Poland: 14.11 - Krakow, 15.11 - Lublin, 17.11 - Wroclaw.
The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw invites to the inaugural session of the biennial International Digital Musicology Conference, which will be held 23–25 October 2024, at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, Poland. The conference focuses on the integration of digital technologies into musicological research, with a special emphasis on introducing digital tools and methods to the Polish academic community, where digital musicology has not yet been widely adopted.
Although Ludomir Różycki - one of the most important representatives of Young Poland - enjoyed spectacular success as a composer during his lifetime, his works are rarely included in concert programmes today. It is therefore worth remembering his exceptional art.
Aleksander Nowak continues his original cycle of compositions that enter into a dialogue with most recent Polish literary works. The album premiere of his opera based on Marcin Wicha’s Nike-awarded book Things I Didn’t Throw Out will take place during the AUKSODRONE festival in Tychy.